It is necessary to understand the importance of cross-cultural research on leadership. There are several aspects that contribute to its significance. These are globalization, methodological challenges, validate leadership theories in other cultures, a wider range of variables and processes, validate taxonomies in other cultures, culture-dependent situational variables, and the need to influence people from other cultures. To comprehend the obstacles of studying cross-cultural leadership, it is important to identify the types of these studies. Such studies are divided into categories. The first category is focused on the research of behaviors, skills, and traits. The second category aims at studying beliefs about effective behaviors. The third is about differences in leadership methods. Finally, the last category studies the relationships between leadership and subordinate outcomes. However, to properly conduct a cross-cultural study, researchers should overcome such methodological problems as the equivalence of meaning for measures, defeating effects of demographic or situational variables, response bias, representative sample, and level of analysis.
Cultural values relate to leader behavior. Such a connection might be caused due to several aspects like cultural values and societal norms, cultural norms and societal laws, cultural conformity, changes in values and traditions over time, and incompatibility between organizational and cultural values. In order to fully understand the correlation between cultural values and leader behavior, it is necessary to mention cultural value dimensions. These are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, gender egalitarianism, performance and humane orientation, and culture clusters.
Another important aspect relates to gender issues. Such issues in leadership include sex-based discrimination, glass ceiling explanation, feminine advantage theories, research findings and limitations on gender differences, and identifying causes and reducing discrimination. The main findings of research on gender differences describe debate and scholarly disagreement and gender differences in leadership behavior and effectiveness. These findings suggest two steps to manage diversity. The first step is to foster appreciation and tolerance. The second step is to provide equal opportunities.
The development of leadership in companies is highly beneficial. It increases external condition change rates and professional competence. Also, it provides new competencies. In addition, such development is relevant for all decision-makers as it focuses on professional skills applicable to existing occupations. There are several methods of development. These methods include lecture and discussion, role-playing, behavioral role modeling, case analyses, and simulations. However, they have certain limitations as these methods should take into account professional skills, motivation, and the potential of trainees. Also, they have to establish training programs, including feedback and ensure a clear understanding of assignments. In addition, leadership development requires a specific internal environment that includes boss support, learning climate, and developmental norms for hiring decisions.
Leaders can foster the leadership development of employees. Activities for this development involve multisource feedback, assessment centers, developmental assignments, mentoring, executive coaching, and simulations. These activities form a system. The system’s major perspectives are relationships among approaches, integrating developmental activities, leadership development, and strategy. Also, leaders can cultivate leadership skills on their own. For example, practitioner books, instruction video or compact disks, and interactive computer programs are widely spread and used by numerous managers.
However, leadership development should be incorporated into human resource management and strategic designing. In order to accomplish this, best practices for developmental activities should be aligned with human resources and strategy functions. These practices include systematic needs analysis, development and succession planning alignment, top management support, and cultural values of development.